Chapter 15 Cain
I barely made it into the kitchen before I phone started ringing. Seeing it was Ayden, I answered it with a, “Do you miss us all ready?”
“What happened.”
I shook my head when I heard his bark. “I am sure that I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Cut the shit, Cain. You know damn well I felt her panic. What the fuck happened?”
I flinched a little when he used my name. “Fine, he technically didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Explain.”
“She woke up begging for a knot.”
He swore. “Did he give it to her?”
“Not exactly.” I chewed on my bottom lip, not looking forward to the explanation.
“Stop chewing on your lip and answer my damn question.”
“I would if you asked one.” I couldn’t help but tease him.
“What caused our little omega to panic?”
I could tell from his tone that I was riding the edge of his patience. “He was teasing her. She was so desperate that she rode him with no prep.”
“Fuck.”
I knew he loved when she was like that, it tickled that little bit of sadism that he had. “Yeah, he was surprisingly sweet with her. Who’d have thought under that gruff angry exterior was a big caring teddy bear. I mean when he tried to choke her—” He tried to cut me off, but I talked over him, “It was half assed. I don’t think he enjoyed it at all.”
“Cain, enough.”
“Sorry, what were we talking about again?”
His growl vibrated through the speaker right to my cock. I would need to use Calliope’s body for some sweet relief after this. “You were telling me why our omega had a panic attack while apparently filled with another alpha’s dick.”
He was riding the edge of rage; I was tempted to keep him there. I did love a good rage fuck, but I decided against it, he would just aim all of that delicious anger in Calliope’s direction. “He was teasing her, making her count her orgasms while he whispered some sappy shit in her ear. She was eating that shit up. Then we pulled out the rose.”
“You’re really telling me that he was buried inside her while he teased her with her toys?”
“Basically.”
“And he didn’t cum?”
“Don’t sound so surprised.” I was fighting not to laugh at his response.
“Neither of us can hold back from that thing.”
He had me there. “Fair point.”
“That all sounds like a fun time to me.”
“Yeah well, he was playing pleasure dom.”
“He didn’t…”
There was one part of the kink play that Calliope had never been able to deal with. She lived for praise and reward; punishment was the opposite. It made her close in on herself. Even the threat of it was enough. We had to be very careful about what we said and how we phrased it. Offering a choice of pleasure—one more significant than the other—for her to choose from. Dax hadn’t known that, still didn’t know it. It was an easy trap to fall into.
“What did he say?” Ayden pressed.
“Don’t you have, I don’t know, technical stuff to be doing?”
“Yes, now answer the question so I can get back to work.” I started to roll my eyes, but he barked at me, “Don’t sass me boy.”
“We have spent entirely too much time together.”
“Not enough as far as I’m concerned.” His voice sounded dreamy. I knew he loved me, that was never in question, but it was nice to hear he cared every once in a while. “Now, tell me what you’re hiding.”
“Not hiding, just making you fish for it.”
“Well, I’m not a god damn angler, so spit it out already.”
“He told her if she lost count, he wouldn’t give her his knot.”
His growl made me pull the phone from my ear. “I’ll gut the bastard and leave him for the maggots.”
“You’d think you were the serial killer, not him.”
“Why are you not more upset about this?”
“Because he realized he had fucked up immediately and cut the panic attack off in its tracks. He took care of her before I could even say a word.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself. It was as if—” I needed him to understand what I had seen, just to make sure that I wasn’t crazy but something in me refused to voice it.
“As if what?”
“He has somehow fallen in love with her in the last two days.”
“That would be insane.”
It made me laugh, no one under this roof could safely be classified as sane, Ayden included. “Why is that so hard to believe?”
“Because Dax Grimes is a psychopath.”
“How exactly do you know that?” I pressed.
Ayden sighed into the phone, I could tell he was getting tired of having to explain himself. “I may have hacked into Dax’s sealed files. I needed to know the man you had brought into our life.”
“He told me about killing his parents.”
“He did fucking what?” That was the moment I realized that no one had told him.
“Yeah, he killed them when he was fifteen if what he said is accurate.”
“So, you understand why I have a problem with believing that he loves Calliope. I have to get back to work, keep an eye on them.” He hung up before I could reply.
Setting the phone on the counter, I moved to the fridge and studied the contents inside, debating what I was going to make. I settled on mac and cheese, pulled pork, and peach cobbler. Thankfully, all of those were easy, I had cooked up a storm last week in preparation for this.
There were two kinds of people who killed. The people like Dax and Calliope who had a mission or a victim type that they targeted. They were the ones that people were afraid of. More so because there was no way to tell just by looking at them. The other type was assassins, most people hated calling themselves that. It did have a certain connotation to it. Conjuring the image of dark rooms and shady deals. That wasn’t what I did. I wasn’t the person you tried to hire off the dark web. No, I was the one that you had to have a contact to even get ahold of someone who knew me. That someone had to have one of my burner numbers. There were only a handful of the nearly a dozen phones I had that I would accept jobs from.
A distinctive ringtone cut through the room. Reaching into the pantry, I pulled the phone that was taped beneath it. There was no need to check who was calling, there was only one person that had this number, my sister, Penelope. She would only call it if she were in trouble. I answered it without thought. “Who do I need to kill?”
“Yes, I’d like to order a pizza.”
“They’re with you, aren’t they?” I could already hear death in my voice.
“That’s correct, for delivery.”
“Can you get away?”
“No, I don’t want pepperoni.”
Shit, that complicated things. “Can you tell me where you are?”
She rattled the address off quickly. “Do you know how long it’ll be?”
“Tell me his name, and I can be there in twenty minutes.”
“It’s under Pack Anderson.”
That made my blood run cold. “As in Samuel Anderson?”
“That’s correct.”
“Buy me some time.”
“Thank you, see you then.” She hung up before I could.
That was worst case scenario that could happen. Samuel Anderson was one of the men that had raped my sweet Calliope. The things I wanted to do to each of those men… Not that I really could at the moment. I glanced over at the clock; Ayden wouldn’t be home for another four hours. I had to get to Penelope sooner rather than later. And I would need backup to do that. Not Ayden though, he was the one whose hands we kept more or less clean. No, I would need Dax for this, but I couldn’t leave Calliope alone. God knew what we would come back to if we did.
I was just texting Ayden to let him know he needed to come home when Calliope and Dax came downstairs. Sending the message while I watched her, she came to me, wrapping her arms around my waist and burying her face in my chest. “Love, I need to tell you something.”
“What’s that?”
My phone dinged and I checked it to see it was Ayden telling me he was on the way home. “You might want to sit down for this.”
“Cain, you’re starting to scare me. Did something happen?”
I sighed, she would want to come with me, she loved Penelope. That couldn’t happen, she was simply too vulnerable right now. “Penelope needs help.”
“She was fine, I just talked to her three days ago. She said she was seeing someone new.”
“She is.” I took a deep breath before finishing that thought. “She’s with Samuel Anderson.”
“Go fucking get her right this minute!”
“I can’t leave you here alone.” I was pleading with her. We needed more time, more time to get Ayden here.
“Dax is here. Go get your sister.” She was insistent.